406/4: When Gavaskar, Viswanath came together to tame the mighty West Indies and script history

Against the mighty West Indies, Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath played the starring roles as the Indian team created history in Port of Spain. Set a target of 403, the visitors put in a stunning performance with the bat on the final day of the match to win by six wickets and square the series. The fact that only Don Bradman’s ‘Invincibles’ (in 1948 against England) had chased over 400 to win a Test before this match lends perspective to the magnitude of this achievement. In his autobiography Sunny Days , Gavaskar wrote: “I was confident that we could save the game, because the wicket was still good, but the thought of winning never entered my mind.” KN Prabhu, for The Times of India , wrote: “It was a wise move to send Brijesh Patel ahead of Eknath Solkar. There’s one other reason why this match is significant – it was the defeat in this Test that triggered West Indies captain Clive Lloyd to go in with all-out pace attacks in the future. He roped in four pacers – Michael Holding, Wayne Daniel, Bernard Julien and Vanburn Holder – who unleashed terror on the Indian batsmen. The hosts won the fourth Test by 10 wickets, with five Indian players – Viswanath, Patel, skipper Bishan Singh Bedi, Anshuman Gaekwad and BS Chandrasekhar – being absent hurt in the second innings after taking heavy blows in the first. After the match, Dicky Rutnagur wrote this for Wisden : “As...the Indian team trudged along the tarmac towards their home-bound aeroplane at Kingston’s Norman Manley Airport, they resembled Napoleon’s troops on the retreat from Moscow. At the end of it all, though, India may have been battered in the final Test of the series but for fans of Indian cricket, the chase at the Queen’s Park Oval will forever remain special for the grit shown by Gavaskar, Viswanath and Co.